NEWS ON DATE - 27-07-2024
Maritime ports asked to hoist local cautionary signal No 3
Maritime ports of Chattogram, Cox’s Bazar, Mongla and Payra have been advised to keep hoisted local cautionary signal No 3 as the low-pressure area over North Bay and adjoining area intensified into a well-marked low and now lies over Gangetic West Bengal and adjoining Northwest Bay.Under its influence step pressure gradient persists over North Bay.Gusty or squally weather may affect the maritime ports, North Bay and adjoining coastal areas of Bangladesh.All fishing boats and trawlers over North Bay have been advised to remain close to the coast and proceed with caution until further notice.
Quota reform protests: RAB arrests 290 more people
Members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) in a drive arrested 290 people from different parts of the country including Dhaka in connection with the recent violence over quota reform protests.ASP Imran Khan of the RAB headquarters media wing said the drive was conducted till Saturday morning.During the drive, 71 people were arrested from Dhaka while the rest from outside Dhaka, he said.
Security beefed up in and around Khulna district jail
Security has been tightened at Khulna district jail considering the current situation in the country including the recent attacks in Narsingdi jail.
“Surveillance has been increased in and around the jail while the leave of all staff of the jail has been cancelled,” said Jail Super Md Rafiqul Kader.
However, the jail authorities also suspended the visit of the relatives of the jail inmates, he said.
“Everyone is performing their duties continuously. Additional police have been deployed at the main gate of the jail,” he said.
Security has been beefed up inside the jail and the law enforcement agencies have been kept on alert, he added.
Currently, there are 1,421 prison inmates in the jail against its capacity of accommodating 676 inmates.
Quota movement: PM witnesses damages at Setu Bhaban
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday morning visited Setu Bhaban to witness the extent of damage caused by attackers during the recent quota reform movement by students.
She went there at about 10am and inspected vandalised floors and premises of the building.
Minister of Road Transport and Bridges Obaidul Quader and other senior officials of the Ministry were present at that time.
They briefed the prime minister about the vandalism and arson attacks during which many vehicles parked there were set on fire.
On July 18, nearly 250-300 unidentified people stormed the Setu Bhaban, vandalised many vehicles, motorbikes, and ransacked different sheds and rooms. They later set those on fire. They attacked and beat many employees there.
Around 50 vehicles were torched at Setu Bhaban.
Earlier in the morning, the prime minister visited Pongu Hospital (National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation) to see the injured people there.
PM Hasina visits NITOR to see the injured of quota violence
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday morning visited National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (NITOR) to see the injured people who came under attacks during the recent countrywide violence.
She went to the NITOR, popularly known as Pongu Hospital, at about 9am and inquired about the condition of the patients who are now undergoing treatment there after being attacked during the student movement for reformation of quota in public service.
The premier gave the necessary instructions to the hospital authorities for proper treatment of the victims.
She also assured the injured people of extending all sorts of assistance to ensure their proper treatment.
Nitor Director Prof. Dr. Kazi Shamim Uzzaman apprised the prime minister of treatment of the victims.
The prime minister became emotional after seeing the condition of the injured people and was found trying her best to hold back tears.
Earlier, the prime minister visited the vandalised metro rail station at Mirpur 10 in the capital on Thursday morning and ransacked Bangladesh Television (BTV) Bhaban on Friday morning to see the extent of damages after these establishments came under attack during the violence.
She also visited Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) on Friday morning and inquired about those who were admitted there for treatment of injuries they suffered during the violence.
Health Minister Dr Samanta Lal Sen and State Minister for Health Dr Rokeya Sultana accompanied the prime minister.
Grappling with maritime disputes and Myanmar crisis, ASEAN top diplomat meetings joined by US, China
Top diplomats from Southeast Asia convened Saturday in the Laotian capital with their powerful dialogue partners in the last of the three-day regional talks that have grappled with tensions over territorial claims in the South China Sea, escalating fighting in Myanmar, and regional rivalry.
Meetings on Saturday will bring together in the same room allies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations — including the United States, China, Russia, Japan, India and Australia — to bolster their relationships and discuss key security issues and other regional affairs.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived Saturday in Vientiane to meet with the ASEAN foreign ministers. He is also expected to meet on the sidelines with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, as both countries are looking to expand their influence in the region.
Lao Foreign Minister Saleumxay Kommasith opened the first meeting of the day with China, Japan and South Korea by saying he hopes the cooperation framework, called ASEAN Plus Three, will continue to “enhance our regional integration and economic resilience, ensuring that our supply chains remain robust and adaptable in the face of future challenges.”
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said the cooperation between the partners has diversified beyond just financial cooperation, emphasizing the importance of not just economic cooperation but also stability, peace and security.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was also in Vientiane, and already held direct talks with Wang on Thursday.
Participants in these meetings represent either critical U.S. allies and partners, or Washington’s two largest rivals, Moscow and Beijing, which have grown closer over the past two years, prompting deep concerns about their combined global influence.
Indonesia said it emphasized in their opening meetings Thursday that it’s important the bloc doesn’t get drawn in as both China and the U.S. look to expand their influence in the region.
Among other issues, Blinken will discuss economic cooperation, the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar and territorial disputes in the South China Sea during his trip in Vientiane, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of State.
ASEAN members Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei all have conflicts with China over its claim of sovereignty over virtually all of the South China Sea, one of the world’s most crucial waterways for shipping. Many worry that direct confrontations there could lead to broader conflict. Indonesia has also expressed concern about what it sees as Beijing’s encroachment on its exclusive economic zone.
The United States and its allies, meanwhile, have regularly conducted military exercises and patrols in the area to assert their “free and open Indo-Pacific” policy, including the right to navigate in international waters, drawing criticism from China.
There are divisions within ASEAN on how to deal with China’s maritime claims. The Philippines has been critical over a perceived lack of support from the bloc, but in a rare deal, China and the Philippines said they had reached an agreement that they hope will end their confrontations, aiming to establish a mutually acceptable arrangement for the disputed area without conceding each other’s territorial claims.
Philippines Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo said after the gala dinner on Friday that he had a bilateral meeting with China’s Wang, where they agreed that they would “honor the provisional agreement in a clear and sincere effort to defuse tensions and try and prevent any incidents of course from leading to further tension in our relationship.”
The increasingly violent civil war in ASEAN member state Myanmar is one of the other issues dominating talks. Thailand has said the group gave their support for it to take a broader role as one of Myanmar’s immediate neighbors.
Nikorndej Balankura, spokesperson of Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters Friday that more dialogue mechanisms have been proposed to include more stakeholders, especially countries that share borders with Myanmar. He however noted that those proposals have just been submitted to Laos, which currently chairs ASEAN and is in charge of recommending them directly to Myanmar to seek its approval.
The army in Myanmar ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 and suppressed widespread nonviolent protests that sought a return to democratic rule, leading to increasing violence and a humanitarian crisis.
ASEAN has been pushing a “five-point consensus” for peace, but the military leadership in Myanmar has so far ignored the plan, raising questions about the bloc’s efficiency and credibility. The peace plan calls for the immediate cessation of violence in Myanmar, a dialogue among all concerned parties, mediation by an ASEAN special envoy, provision of humanitarian aid through ASEAN channels, and a visit to Myanmar by the special envoy to meet all concerned parties.
Typhoon Gaemi weakens to a tropical storm as it moves inland carrying rain toward central China
Tropical storm Gaemi brought rain to central China on Saturday as it moved inland after making landfall at typhoon strength on the country's east coast Thursday night.
The storm felled trees, flooded streets and damaged crops in China but there were no reports of casualties or major damage. Eight people died in Taiwan, which Gaemi crossed at typhoon strength before heading over open waters to China.
The worst loss of life, however, was in a country that Gaemi earlier passed by but didn't strike directly: the Philippines. A steadily climbing death toll has reached 34, authorities there said Friday. The typhoon exacerbated seasonal monsoon rains in the Southeast Asian country, causing landslides and severe flooding that stranded people on rooftops as waters rose around them.
ChinaGaemi weakened to a tropical storm since coming ashore Thursday evening in coastal Fujian province, but it is still expected to bring heavy rains in the coming days as it moves northwest to Jiangxi, Hubei and Henan provinces.
About 85 hectares (210 acres) of crops were damaged in Fujian province and economic losses were estimated at 11.5 million yuan ($1.6 million), according to Chinese media reports. More than 290,000 people were relocated because of the storm.
Elsewhere in China, several days of heavy rains this week in Gansu province left one dead and three missing in the country's northwest, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
TaiwanResidents and business owners swept out mud and mopped up water Friday after serious flooding that sent cars and scooters floating down streets in parts of southern and central Taiwan. Some towns remained inundated with waist-deep water.
Eight people died, several of them struck by falling trees and one by a landslide hitting their house. More than 850 people were injured and one person was missing, the emergency operations center said.
Visiting hard-hit Kaohsiung in the south Friday, President Lai Ching-te commended the city's efforts to improve flood control since a 2009 typhoon that brought a similar amount of rain and killed 681 people, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported.
Lai announced that cash payments of $20,000 New Taiwan Dollars ($610) would be given to households in severely flooded areas.
A cargo ship sank off the coast near Kaohsiung Harbor during the typhoon, and the captain's body was later pulled from the water, the Central News Agency said. A handful of other ships were beached by the storm.
PhilippinesAt least 34 people died in the Philippines, mostly because of flooding and landslides triggered by days of monsoon rains that intensified when the typhoon — called Carina in the Philippines — passed by the archipelago’s east coast.
The victims included 11 people in the Manila metro area, where widespread flooding trapped people on the roofs and upper floors of their houses, police said. Some drowned or were electrocuted in their flooded communities.
Earlier in the week, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered authorities to speed up efforts in delivering food and other aid to isolated rural villages, saying people may not have eaten for days.
The bodies of a pregnant woman and three children were dug out Wednesday after a landslide buried a shanty in the rural mountainside town of Agoncillo in Batangas province.
Environment Minister calls for accessible, transparent climate finance
Environment, Forest, and Climate Change Minister Saber Hossain Chowdhury, called for the implementation of mechanisms that guarantee easy accessibility to climate finance for developing nations.
He highlighted the need for increased transparency in the allocation and distribution of these funds to ensure they effectively support the intended climate actions.
The minister said this while delivered a compelling speech at the opening day of the two-day Head of Delegation retreat program held in Shamakhi, Azerbijan on Friday.
The event, which brings together key international leaders, is focused on shaping the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance.
Furthermore, the minister underscored the importance of considering the unique needs of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the formulation of the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG).
He stressed the necessity of finalizing a clear definition of climate finance, ensuring that it comprehensively covers adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage.
The Head of Delegation program commenced with an in-depth discussion on setting the scene for the NCQG, which is poised to replace the current USD 100 billion climate finance goal set by developed countries for developing nations after 2025.
The discussions and insights from this retreat are expected to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of global climate finance, driving forward more equitable and effective support for vulnerable nations in their fight against climate change.
Dhaka's air quality remains 'moderate'
Dhaka has ranked 63rd on the list of cities worldwide with the worst air quality with an AQI score of 51 at 09:08 am this morning.
Today’s air was classified as 'moderate', and even Dhaka’s air quality remained in moderate zone for the past few days, indicating an improvement of the air quality.
Indonesia’s Medan, Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Kinshasa, Indonesia’s Jakarta and Pakistan’s Lahore occupied the first, second, third, fourth spots in the list, with AQI scores of 193, 171, 156 and 138, respectively.
When the AQI value for particle pollution is between 50 and 100, air quality is considered ‘moderate’, between 101 and 150, air quality is considered ‘unhealthy for sensitive groups’, between 150 and 200 is ‘unhealthy’, between 201 and 300 is said to be 'very unhealthy', while a reading of 301+ is considered 'hazardous', posing serious health risks to residents.
The AQI, an index for reporting daily air quality, informs people how clean or polluted the air of a certain city is and what associated health effects might be a concern for them.
The AQI in Bangladesh is based on five pollutants: particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2, and ozone.
Dhaka has long been grappling with air pollution issues. Its air quality usually turns unhealthy in winter and improves during the monsoon.
As per World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution kills an estimated seven million people worldwide every year, mainly due to increased mortality from stroke, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, and acute respiratory infections.
Paris dazzles with a rainy Olympics opening ceremony on the Seine River
A hot-air balloon brought an Olympic ring of fire into a rainy sky and singer Celine Dion belted from the Eiffel Tower as Paris kicked off its first Summer Olympics in a century Friday, with a four-hour-long, rule-breaking opening ceremony that unfurled along the Seine River.
On-and-off showers did not seem to hamper the enthusiasm of the athletes. Some held umbrellas as they rode boats down the river in a showcase of the city’s resilience as authorities investigated suspected acts of sabotage targeting France's high-speed rail network.
With the ambitious ceremony, the stakes for France were immense. Dozens of heads of state and government were in town, and the world was watching as Paris turned itself into a giant open-air theater. Along the Seine, iconic monuments became stages for dancers, singers and other artists.
That included the Louvre Museum, near where French judo champ Teddy Riner and three-time Olympic champion runner Marie-Jose Perec lit the Olympic cauldron, which was attached to a giant balloon that floated into the night — an homage to early French pioneers of manned flight.
“We survived the rain, but it didn’t spoil any of our fun," USA beach volleyball player Kelly Cheng said. "This was one of the most magical nights of our lives.”
Despite the weather, crowds crammed the Seine's banks and bridges and watched from balconies, “oohing” and “aahing” as Olympic teams paraded in boats down the waterway that got increasingly choppy.
Many of the hundreds of thousands of spectators huddled under umbrellas, plastic ponchos or jackets as the rains intensified, others danced and sang, and some dashed from their seats for shelter.
“The rain can't stop us,” said U.S. basketball star LeBron James, sporting a plastic poncho along with the other American flag bearer, tennis player Coco Gauff.
The weather made for some bizarre scenes at the show combining prerecorded and live performances: a stiff upper-lipped pianist played on even as small puddles formed on his grand piano. A breakdancer flipped her moves on the sheen of a rain-drenched platform. Some athletes in Bermuda-style colorful shirts looked dressed for the beach, not a deluge.
Organizers said the weather forced them to scrap some elements of the show considered too dangerous in the slippery conditions.
Still, as global audiences tuned in, Paris put its best foot forward — quite literally, with a spectacular Olympic launch that lifted spirits and joyous French cancan dancers early on. A humorous short film featured soccer icon Zinedine Zidane. Plumes of French blue, white and red smoke followed.
Lady Gaga sang in French in a prerecorded bit, with dancers shaking pink plumed pompoms, injecting a cabaret feel. On the Eiffel Tower, Dion closed the show with her first live performance since the French-Canadian singer was diagnosed stiff person syndrome, a rare neurological disorder, at the end of 2022.
More than three hours into the show, French President Emmanuel Macron declared the Games open. In a gaffe before that, the five-ring Olympic flag was raised upside down at the Trocadero across from the Eiffel Tower.
In some memorable moments, French-Malian pop star Aya Nakamura, the most listened-to French-speaking artist in the world, emerged from a pyrotechnic display in an all-gold out to sing her hit “Djadja” accompanied by a Republican guard band of the French army.
The ceremony celebrated women, including 10 golden statues of female pioneers that rose from giant pedestals along the river. Among them was Olympe de Gouges, who drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Women and the Female Citizen in 1791 during the French Revolution. She campaigned for the abolition of slavery and was guillotined in 1793.
The Paris Games aim to be the first with equal numbers of men and women competing.
The sprawling event gave organizers bigger crowds to transport, organize and safeguard than previous Olympic ceremonies in stadiums.
Thousands of athletes on 85 boats started the 6-kilometer (nearly 4-mile) parade on the Seine by breaking through curtains of water cascading down from Austerlitz Bridge. The jetting waters were a wink at the fountains of Versailles Palace, the venue for Olympic equestrian competitions.
Per Olympic protocol, the first boat carried athletes from Greece, birthplace of the ancient Games. It was followed by the Olympic team of refugee athletes and then, the other nations in French alphabetical order.
Some spectators who followed organizers’ advice to arrive well ahead of time along the ceremony route fumed over long waits to get to their seats.
“Paris has been great, anything to do with the Olympics and dissemination of information has been horrible,” said Tony Gawne, a 54-year-old Texan who turned up six hours in advance with his wife.
“When you spend $6,000 on two tickets, well, that’s a little frustrating,” he said.
But Paris had plenty of aces up its sleeve. The Eiffel Tower, its head visible below the clouds, Notre Dame Cathedral — restored from the ashes of its 2019 fire — the Louvre Museum and other iconic monuments starred in the ceremony. Award-winning theater director Thomas Jolly, the show’s creative mind, used the signature Paris cityscape of zinc-gray rooftops as the playground for his imagination.
His task: Tell the story of France, its people, their history and essence in a way that leaves an indelible imprint on Olympic audiences. Refresh the image and self-confidence of the French capital that was repeatedly struck by deadly extremist attacks in 2015. Capture how Paris is also aiming to reboot the Olympics, with Summer Games it has worked to make more appealing and sustainable.
It was a big ask. So Paris went big, very big. That goes for the security, too. Large fenced-off stretches of central Paris were locked down to those without passes and the skies during the ceremony were a no-fly zone for 150 kilometers (93 miles) around.
During the athletes’ waterborne adventure, they passed historic landmarks that have been temporarily transformed into arenas for Olympic sports.
Concorde Plaza, where French revolutionaries guillotined King Louis XVI and other royals, now hosting skateboarding and other sports. The golden-domed resting place of Napoléon Bonaparte, the backdrop for Olympic archery, and the Eiffel Tower, which donated chunks of iron that have been inlaid in the gold, silver and bronze Olympic medals. They’ll be won in the 32 sports’ 329 medal events.
Paris’ aim, said chief Paris Games organizer Tony Estanguet, was “to show to the whole world and to all of the French that in this country, we’re capable of exceptional things.”